OF FARRIERY. 



•17d 



CHAPTER XVI. 



REMARKS ON THE PURCHASING OF A HORSE. 



REMARKS ON THE PURCHASIlVG OF A HORSE. 



We now come to the difficult subject of 

 making some remarks relative to the purchas- 

 ing of a Horse : — a commerce, in which is 

 exercised more chicanery and deceit than in 

 almost any other, and which often proves a lot- 

 tery, even to the most initiated in its mysteries. 

 Before entering into the cautions recjuisitc to 

 guard the unwary, we give the following ju- 

 dicious remarks of the Editor of the '' Horse," 

 because we think they are true. He says : — 



" Beautiful as is the Horse, and identified 

 so much with our pleasure and our profit, he 

 has been the object of almost universal re- 

 gard ; and there are few persons who do not 

 pretend to be somewhat competent judges of 

 his form, qualities, and worth. From the 

 nobleman, with his numerous and valuable 

 stud, to the meanest helper in the stable, and 

 not excluding even the mechanic who scarcely 

 crosses, or sits behind a Horse once in a 

 twelvemonth, there is scarcely a man who 

 would not be offended if he were thought to 

 be altoo-ether iajnorant of horse-flesh. There 

 is no subject on which he is so positive, there 

 is no subject on which, generally speaking, he 

 is so deficient, and there are few Horses, on 



some points of which these pretended and 

 self-sufficient judges would not give a totally 

 opposite opinion. 



"The truth is, that this supposed know- 

 ledge is rarely founded on principle ; or is the 

 result of the slightest acquaintance with the 

 actual structure of this animal, or that form 

 and connexion of parts, on which strength, or 

 fleetness, or stoutness, must necessarily de- 

 pend. If we were constructing or examining 

 a machine composed of levers and pullies, and 

 by which we purposed to raise a great weight, 

 or to set in motion certain bodies with a given 

 velocity, we should fail in our object, or ex- 

 pose our ignorance of the matter, if we were 

 not aware \\ hat kind of lever, or connexion of 

 levers was necessary, and in what situation 

 the ropes should be placed, and in what di- 

 rection the force should be applied, and by 

 what means we could obtain mechanical ad- 

 vantage, and by what peculiar construction it 

 would inevitably be lost*." 



These observations are, we believe, mathe- 

 matically correct, and show to us the necessity 

 of studying the anatomy of animals, before we 

 can become critically acquainted with the 



* See " Treatise on Animal Meciiatiics." 



